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Millennium Development Goal 5, Human Rights,
and Maternal Health in Africa: Possibilities,
Constraints, and Future Prospects
Dr. Obiajulu Nnamuchi*
My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me. Behold, the
cry of the daughter of my people from the length and breadth of the
land . . . . For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is
there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my
people not been restored? 2
How many women . . . will it take to suffer, or at worst lose their lives,
before our politicians offer effective solutions to the tragedy of maternal . . .
mortality? Women have this incredible gift of carrying life, and it is this life
which brings hope for the whole nation . . . . If political decision makers
actually attempted to mitigate the difficulties which our health system
currently experiences, they could contribute to stopping the maternal
mortality and stillbirths which have, and which continue to, cost the lives of
too many . . . women. 3
I. INTRODUCTION AND PRELIMINARY BACKGROUND
As a platform for global maternal health protection, Millennium
Development Goal 5 (MDG 5) is the most critical of the eight Millennium
LL. B. (Awka, Nigeria), LL.M. (Notre Dame), LL.M. (Toronto), LL.M. (Lund,
Sweden), M. A. (Louisville), S.J. D. (Loyola, Chicago), Assistant Professor of Law,
University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus; President/Chief Consultant, Centre for Health,
Bioethics and Human Rights (CHBHR) Enugu, Nigeria. To the various organizations and
coalitions campaigning for maternal health improvement and overall wellbeing of women,
whose unrelenting and unflinching work inspired this paper, I remain eternally grateful as
well as to AdaObi Nnamuchi, my able assistant. All errors and omissions remain my sole
responsibility.
2. Jeremiah 8: 18 – 22 (ESV).
3. Kagbe Rachel, Wasted Lives: Why do Chadian Women still Die in Childbirth? 50. 50
INCLUSIVE DEMOCRACY (Aug. 30, 2012), http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/kagbe-
rachel/wasted-lives-why-do-chadian-women-still-die-in-childbirth.
